Simple Tip May Ease Athletes' Performance Anxiety

Sept. 20, 2012 -- Researchers have revealed a simple trick that may help athletes keep their cool during a game's high-pressure moments. Their advice to avoid choking under pressure: Clench the fist of your non-dominant hand.

The findings appear in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

In the study, right-handed athletes who squeezed a ball with their left hand or clenched their left fist before a competition were less likely to choke in high-stress matches.

Here's why: The left side of the body is controlled by the right side of the brain.

"Increasing activation in the right hemisphere decreases activation in the left hemisphere," says study researcher Juergen Beckmann, PhD.

Choking under pressure seems to be caused by a dominant activation in the left hemisphere, which controls key areas of the brain that help us psych ourselves out when under the gun.

Clenching Technique May Reduce Choke Risk

Brain scans show that a decrease of activation in the brain's left hemisphere boosts performance, says Beckmann. He is the chair of sport psychology at the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

The researchers conducted three studies involving soccer players, judo experts, and badminton players. They tested the athletes' skills during normal practice and during important matches that took place before a large crowd or video cameras. The researchers only tested right-handed people.

The athletes were less likely to choke under pressure when they squeezed a ball in their left hand than when they squeezed it in their right hand.

This technique seems to work best in situations where movements such as kicking a ball are automatic. Overthinking them, however, can impair performance.

"So far, we know that the technique seems to work only with complex motor tasks which have become automated," says Beckmann. "It should not only work with sports but also ... could be helpful for elderly people to maintain balance when they are afraid that they might fall."

Break the Thought Cycle

Beckmann and his team are now studying the technique among expert musicians.

"It might also be useful for surgeons or other professions in which precision, pressure, and highly automated tasks combine," he says. To date, the team has conducted 13 studies, including one with gymnasts. "Whenever the specified conditions were given, the technique never failed."